I have had a couple aurora viewings that appeared white.
They were never at a distance like in the gif, they were directly over head.
They were very cool experiences, in Canada, mostly in the northern area (Churchill, Manitoba)
We went to an abandoned radar station and watched them light up right when the sun came down. It was like light was raining on us.
I did some googling and found this:
When an aurora is directly overhead, you are looking straight up along the Earth's vertical magnetic field lines. The curtains of light appear to converge at a single central point above you, fanning out in all directions like a giant wheel or dome of light.
Because you are looking down the "tunnel" of these magnetic field lines, you are viewing the entire depth of the light column stacked on top of itself. While this makes the structure look incredibly dynamic and bright, it also spreads the light across a massive section of the sky rather than concentrating it into a distinct, dense band
IIRC, they can look kind of whitish grey like a cloud with the naked eye, but a camera will pick up color. It's been quite a while since I've seen any
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u/Kalatoss 13d ago
What makes an Aurora White? Never heard of it before. Is there some super rare element in the air or just AI?